Walt tests an early-stage version of Google’s Chrome OS for computers–an attempt to challenge the Microsoft-Apple duopoly. One drawback of the new operating system, due next summer, is having to give up familiar local programs and dwell in the cloud.

The future of Java development for the Mac OS, which was starting to look a little dicey recently, firmed up today with a new deal between Apple and Oracle. Under the agreement, Apple, which has always handled in-house development of the necessary virtual machine software for Java to run on Macs, will now turn those duties over to Oracle, starting with Java Standard Edition 7, and will contribute its Java work to OpenJDK, the open-source project under which Java is developed.

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